U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,884 discloses a circuit card retention and polarization arrangement for a zero insertion force card edge connector. The arrangement includes a pin and pin slot on the card and a like pin and pin slot in the connector but in a reverse pattern; i.e., pin slot is provided in the leading side of the card, a receiving pin therefore is located at the remote end of the card slot in the connector, a pin slot is provided adjacent the entrance to the card slot and a receiving pin therefore is located on the trailing side of the card. As can be discerned from the foregoing, the card must be inserted into the card slot from one side thereof to effectuate the mating of the respective pins and slots. This requirement forecloses using the circuit card, with its laterally extending pins, in those cases where the card must be top loaded into the card slot. Accordingly, it is now proposed to provide a circuit card retaining device which does not restrict the direction in which the card can be inserted into the connector and further which requires only a very small slot in one side of the circuit card.